Even though Mother Nature hasn’t been 100% cooperative of late for the New York Mets, they’ll begin the final series of a ten game home stand on Monday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a nationally televised MLB betting affair on ESPN. After beating the Braves 1-0 in just six innings last night, the Mets moved to 6-1 in the first seven games of this series and have done so thanks to some great pitching. They’ve only allowed more than two runs once since April 18th, that being their one loss in this streak. The Dodgers are ending a nine-game roadie in which they are just a woeful 2-4 against the lowly Nationals and Reds.

The good news for Manager Joe Torre and Dodgers betting fans is that RHP Hiroki Kuroda is going to be on the bump tonight. So far this year, the right-handed Japanese native has been on fire, going 2-0 with a 2.18 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting a relatively lofty .265 against him, but his 18/3 K/BB ratio is absolutely stellar. Kuroda has gotten a ton of help from his offense this year, which has scored at least six runs for him in all three outings and has averaged 9.0 runs per game. The righty is 0-2 lifetime with a 10.45 ERA against the Mets.

When LHP Oliver Perez is on the mound, anything can happen. The man simply known as “Oli” in the Big Apple has some great stats and some miserable ones this year. His 0-2 record is going to be looked upon with scorn, but his offense has given him just three runs of help in all of his starts. He’s only allowing batters to hit .250 against him, but he has also given up ten walks in three outings to boot. However, a K/9 of 7.41 is nothing to be ashamed of. The question is whether we’ll see the good Oli or the bad Oli tonight. Perez is 6-5 with a 3.86 ERA against the Dodgers in his career.

The Mets are playing too well at this point to be ignored, even if Perez is on the mound and he is the only losing pitcher that the team has had in a week and a half. New York needs the weather to stay solid to get into its solid bullpen, which should nail down another win for the hosts at Citi Field.